Realization
by 12Hues
Summary: Maddie catches Phantom in a net, and notices a few things she never saw before. From afar, Phantom seems like just another ghostly menace. But up close, he reminds her of ... ? Now two shot !
1. Truth

Hello!

This is a short oneshot I was inspired to write while thinking about Danny confessing to his parents about his ghost half. Enjoy!

I do not own Danny Phantom. Must I even say that anymore?

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><p>With her gun trained at his head and ready to fire, Maddie licked her lips in excitement. Finally, they could capture Phantom and study him. They would finally understand the real Phantom, his gears and works.<p>

With her finger slowly adding pressure to the trigger of her net-shooter, she whispered a final, "_Gotcha_," before pulling the trigger and watching her net shoot out at the floating boy in record speed.

Phantom didn't see it coming. The net extended out like a web. By the time he felt the ropes begin to wrap around his body, it was too late. With a muffled cry he fell downwards, his powers drained as a result of the ecto-powered netting. He hit the ground with a _thud_, hissing as his shoulder took the full force of the fall. Disoriented and tangled in a mess of glowing blue netting, Phantom looked up at the approaching blue and black clad figure.

The sense of achievement the Fenton woman felt was enormously uplifting. She walked towards her catch with square shoulders and her chin held high. Maddie swung her gun in a circular motion to where it rested on her shoulder, a hand on her hip accompanied by a grin that spread across her face.

The ghost boy watched his unsuspecting mother grin triumphantly down at him, and dread immediately washed over him.

"Looks like all the trouble you've been causing finally caught up with you, doesn't it Ghost boy?"

"I never caused any trouble!" He retorted, struggling to keep the bindings out of his face. "Not intentionally, anyway. What's it gonna take to prove I'm on your side?"

"Oh please," Maddie scoffed. "You're not fooling anyone, you ectoplasmic _scum_."

Phantom groaned, continuing to squirm under the strain of the ropes. His face would crinkle in annoyance as a binding got caught between his eyes or under his nose. Fighting a laugh, Maddie pulled a knife from her satchel and leaned down.

The ghost boy looked up in fear, desperately trying to inch away from her knife.

"_Relax, Ghost boy_." She said, tearing the bindings around his face. "It'll be much easier to interrogate you with these ropes out of the way."

With a final slice, Maddie let the ropes fall and sat back to admire her handiwork. She studied her prey's face, now free of netting.

Yet what she expected to see was entirely different from what lay before her. She thought of a vicious, mischievous, immature ghost when she saw or heard news of Phantom. From afar, with all the damage he'd do during his seemingly territorial battles with other ghosts, he seemed nothing more than a threat to Amity Park. Yet as Maddie looked closer at the Phantom she thought she'd see, she instead found the face of a young boy, wide-eyed and innocent. His skin was a cleaner, healthier shade than most ghosts she'd studied, and his hair was not mangled like the rest of them. His bangs kept swooping down into his eyes, which almost made her reach out and swipe them off his forehead. It was an instinct from something she used to do, something that reminded her so very much of the ghost before her. His eyes, wide and afraid, glowed a vivid emerald, as many in the Ghost Zone Maddie had seen in her lifetime. With this closer look, however, she could make out small specks of blue that seemed vaguely familiar.

While she had been peering closely at the Ghost boy, Phantom was thinking of a way out.

As if a light bulb went off above his head, his expression brightened, and he squirmed a little more under the tightness of the netting.

"Um, hey, lady?" He asked meekly as he struggled to look up at her. She blinked, coming back to earth. "Could you loosen up my hands? I mean, I think I'm losing circulation."

Maddie stared down at him, almost rolling her eyes. "Ghosts don't have circulation." She said.

Phantom inwardly cursed. "Oh, well, could you loosen 'em up anyway? My wrists are seriously in pain right now."

With a sigh and a quick mutter of '_ghosts are such babies_' or something along those lines, Maddie got around the teenager's body and cut loose a few binds from the netting.

"Thanks a bunch," Phantom said in a sincere voice, causing Maddie to raise an eyebrow. "Now if you'll excuse me," he grinned, "I have some escaping to do."

With a flash of bright green light, the net tore open, and out flew a smiling Phantom. Maddie gasped and mentally slapped herself at her stupidity, her eyes never leaving Phantom's figure as she reached for her net gun.

"Thanks a bunch," Phantom said with a mock salute, a silly grin on his face. "See you later, Mom- _I mean, Maddie_!"

As said woman trained her gun at the ghost, she blinked, registering what he'd said right before flashing off into the sky. '_Mom_?'

In that moment, Maddie Fenton saw and heard what she saw was her son, in the form of Danny Phantom.

And then it hit her. Danny. Danny Phantom. Danny _Fenton_. The similarity struck her like a ton of bricks, and she stood there with a blank expression. Suddenly her son's sudden disappearances made sense, and so did his dropping grades, and odd behavior. Suddenly Phantom's strange antics made sense too. Suddenly, the lab accident with the Portal came to mind. Suddenly, she could put two and two together and...

A numb, confused Maddie Fenton dropped her gun as she came to a shocking realization.

_Her son was Danny Phantom_.

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><p>Too dramatic ? Too obvious? Too cliche?<p>

Please let me know by reviewing ! Thank you so much . (:

~12Hues


	2. Closure

**Hello! **

As my reviewers asked, this has become a two shot. (: I felt bad about leaving it hanging like that, so I thought I'd add a little emotional closure. Enjoy!

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><p>Maddie Fenton stood at the sink of the kitchen, softly scrubbing away the excess food from the dinner plates. For the past week, she had walked around out of tune and off earth. She would randomly space out and take a long time to reply. When she did, she always seemed high strung or tense. And lately, she had been avoiding her son.<p>

Exactly one week ago, she had caught the infamous Danny Phantom in her very own net. Just moments after he fell to her feet, she began noticing strange things about the Ghost boy. Like how his eyes had specks of blue that reminded her of her son, or how is hair fell into his face and reminded her of her son, or the way he said 'Mom' accidentally and looked and sounded _exactly_ like Danny…  
>That moment she realized, Danny Phantom was <em>her son<em>.

Her hands shook slightly at the thought. How could she not notice before? The sudden drop in his grades, his odd behavior, coming home battered and bruised with some ridiculous excuse.

Maddie could laugh and cry at the next thought.

'_All those reactions to our ghost hunting gear should've been a dead giveaway…_'

Perhaps it was her fault, her own ignorance. Maybe she knew the whole time. The facts were out there, weren't they? Laid out in front of her, screaming at her. Maybe she refused to accept that her son was Danny Phantom, the ghost she'd spent years trying to track down.

Maddie bit her lip at the thought of hunting Danny. How many injuries had she herself caused to her own son? How many times did she yell profanities at him and swear she'd dissect him? She choked a laugh. And she was supposed to be his mother, for goodness sake.

Realizing she was done with the dishes and had left the water running, she brought her hands out from her gloves and turned the faucet off. With a sigh, she leaned forward over the counter and buried her face in her hands.

_What kind of mother was she_?

Footsteps bounded down the stairs, but she barely acknowledged them. Her heart was aching too much to fake a smile on her face, as it had been all week. She merely shut her eyes tight and let whomever had come downstairs continue on with their business.  
>"Um, Mom?"<p>

Maddie jolted upward as the voice registered in her brain. The head Fenton woman turned around to face the one person she'd been brooding about the entire week- her_ son_, Danny Phantom.

Her face must have been odd at the moment, because Danny gave her a worried expression. "I just came down to grab my book."

Sure enough, a history book was laid out on the edge of the table. Her son grabbed it and tucked it under his arm, looking up at his mother yet again with curious eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Maddie studied her son for a moment, before easing her iron grip on the counter and calming down with yet another sigh. "I'm fine, sweetie." She gave him a weary smile. "Just haven't been feeling well lately.."

Danny raised an eyebrow in question, silently wondering to himself if it was that time of the month again. "Uh, okay…"

After a short, awkward silence, the halfa cleared his throat and looked up at his tensed up mother.

"You know Mom," he began, using his free hand to scratch the back of his neck. Maddie wondered how many times she'd damaged that hand in a chase.

"I may not be the best listener," he continued, avoiding eye contact with her as a slight blush formed on his face. _God, this was embarrassing_. "But if you never need to… you know, let it all out, um…"

Suddenly all of her worries and troubles lifted from her shoulders ever so slightly, and she managed a smile at her son.

"Thank you so much, honey." Maddie said, her voice breaking near the end. Danny's head perked up at the sound, becoming concerned as his mother began to become more and more upset. "You have no idea how much that means… to me…"

And then came the onslaught of full-on tears. The elder woman let them stream down her face as she smiled at her son, finally understanding that that's what he would always be. Her son.

Confused, scared, and not knowing what else to do, Danny rushed to his mother and engulfed her in the biggest hug he could muster. He shut his eyes tight, hoping it would be enough to calm her down.

Maddie only rasped a laugh in response, pulling her child closer to her. She murmured things as she combed her fingers through her boy's hair. This was her baby, her child, her angel, no matter who or what he was or turned out to be.

"I am so, _so_ sorry for not paying enough attention to you, Danny." She cried into his hair, murmuring her apology that stood for the last three or so years of pain. "I should've been watching you better. I should've listened to you. Oh I… baby, I'm so sorry. I should've been a better mother to you…" She sobbed harder.

At this, Danny tensed in her arms, then proceeded to squeeze her tight as his own eyes began to water.

"No Mom," he whispered into her chest. "No. You're the best. The best Mom in the entire world."

She laughed slightly. How she wished that was true.

"I love you, Mom." Danny whispered harshly as he squeezed tighter, feeling his own hot tears soak into her shirt.

"I love you too, sweetie." She whispered back, tears flowing less harsh. "And you know, I'll accept you for who you are no matter what."

She paused and pulled him slightly away, to look him in the eyes. Mother to son, she sent him a smile full of warmth and love.

"Don't ever think for a second that I'll let you go," she said, giving his shoulders a firm grip of assurance. "You're my son no matter who you are or what you do, Danny. Don't _ever_ forget that."

Danny, surprised and a little scared by what she meant, could only gulped and nod. He fisted his tears off of his face, and mumbled an apology for staining her shirt.

Maddie watched her son take a deep breath and yawn, feeling all her troubles and worries had been lifted.

"It's late. You should get to bed, honey." She murmured, brushing her son's hair with her fingers. He nodded sleepily, giving her wrist a squeeze before turning around to head upstairs.

"_I love you, Danny_." She called softly. Said boy turned from his spot on the staircase, casting a droopy smile to his mother.

"Love you too.." He murmured, turning back around to walk up the stairs. As the light caught his eyes in the darkness of the staircase, Maddie swore she saw a flash of green.

Picking up the history book that had been forgotten on the floor, she smiled. Yes, her son was Danny Phantom, but she was glad she knew. Now that she was aware, she could watch him more closely and help from the background.

And she was so proud of him.

Danny would tell her when he was ready. Until then, she'd continue to love and support her baby boy.

Her hero boy.

_Her son, Danny Phantom_.

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><p>What'd you think? Too cheesy? Too dramatic? Too emotional?<p>

I tried tapping in to Maddie's motherly side more. Good ?

Please review! I love hearing good criticism.

~12Hues 


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